I have a sony bravia tv and recently picked up a sony bravia surround sound kit to go with it. The kit consists of speakers as well as a dvd player that serves as the receiver. The dvd player has hdmi out but not in, so my xbox is connected to my tv by hdmi, and then to my dvd player with an optical cable. The problem I have is that when I am playing games the surround sound mostly works, but when something is behind me (such as a character following me around and talking) I hear the bass but nothing else. If I set the xbox audio output to digital stereo instead of surround everything works but the surround directionality is diminished. I know this is a kind of specific problem but I was hoping somehow someone would have some advice. I've tried screwing with the dvd player, the tv and the xbox and have decided probably the tv is where the problem is. In the sound mode setting I have an MTS (dunno what the means) that says "stereo" that is greyed out and won't let me change it. I also have an Alternate Audio which is greyed out. Considering my speakers and tv are the same brand and model I guess I figure these should work together alright. Anywho, any help would be much appreciated.

If you are using the optical out from the TV that is most likely the problem. Most HDTVs will only output 5.1 surround sound from the internal tuner and will output 2.0 from all other sources. Yes that means the HDMI you sent to the TV will be reduced to 2.0 audio going out the optical output. Reconnect the audio directly from the X-Box to the audio system and bypass the TV would be my suggestion.

So there is no way to connect directly to the audio system since it has no hdmi in. I know that what I really need is a receiver with hdmi in and out but I have yet to see one that is reasonably priced. You wouldn't happen to know if there is some reasonably priced tuner/switcher type thing that could plug in hdmi and come out optical would you? Sorry for what might be dumb questions but you might have noticed that I don't really know that much about the technology. Thanks.